Hmm…tough one. Lot’s of criteria to base 10 years of design on but I’m going for long standing industry influence rather than just pure design influence, since there were a lot of highly influential cars on the design world, but I don’t want to call out Chris Bangle’s 7 series for causing every car to get a frumpy trunk lid.
Beginning of time - VW Beetle - Benchmark of utility and timelessness
50’s - Mercedes 300SL - Benchmark for performance, German engineering and design
60’s - Ford Mustang/BMW 02/911 - I’m divided here in terms of importance since this decade was probably the peak of automotive design and innovation.
70’s - Honda Civic - The first compact car to define the segment for arguably the next 40 years.
80’s - Audi Quattro - The car that gave us all boners for AWD, turbo chargers, and bulging fender flares.
90’s - Dodge Viper - A car so brilliantly insane and ready to kill you they didn’t need to give it a roof or windows until years later and people still bought it.
00’s - Toyota Prius - Technically came out in the 90’s but it wasn’t until the early 2K’s that we realized we all need to save the planet.
10’s - Tesla Model S - When we realized our Prius’s weren’t good enough.